E-BIKE OF THE YEAR - BICYCLING MAGAZINE NOV/DEC 2022
+ DARRVIN ROVE
R86 495 / DARRVINSHOP.COM
Darrvin is a local e-bike company, formed by a bunch of old (er)-school off-roaders with decades of experience in the mountain-bike business. The Rove is their electric duallie ( they also have a hardtail and a gravel bike), and it typifies Darrvin's 'quality and affordability' ethos: a bomb-proof aluminium alloy frame and swingarm assembly, with a Rockshox Deluxe Select+ RL fork and a Rockshox 35 Gold rear shock for 140mm travel all round, driven by 11-speed SRAM NX gearing and powered by a 95Nm Bafang M500 motor.
It comes standard with a 560Wh internal battery, which gave us enough juice for nearly four hours of playing up and down our local trails, albeit mainly in Eco mode. (If you want more range, then a 700Wh unit can be fitted.)
The Rove is not as long or as slack as many other trail-focused e-bikes - you can't simply point and shoot down a technical drop - but the more compact geometry rewards you with a liveliness that's almost gone extinct in modern mountain bikes. It makes the Rove a fine bike for newcomers to electric-assisted trail riding, and a capable all-rounder that's also at home on faster, XC-style trails - or even gravel roads.
